We spent a family weekend on the French Riviera in Nice this September as Mr P was competing in the Ironman 70.3 World Championships.
I had absolutely no idea what to expect. I’ve not been to many of his other events, mainly because of the early starts and the locations of the races not having quite the appeal. In Nice, I was flabbergasted by the whole thing. In a good way. So much so that I wouldn’t be averse to Mr P doing more. After a short break, obviously… Aix-en-Provence, Cascais, Peloponnese…
Supporting Mr P at the Ironman 70.3 World Championships needed the Anna-planner at her best! We had a (novices) logistical game plan, sensible pacing of our energy (we still walked 10 miles on race day) and tip top navigation skills for a massive global event.
We were ducks out of water. I’d never travelled abroad with just my son, neither of us had been to an event like this before, and many things were in French (as we were in France…). Add 6,500 competitors, all their families and supporters, a city you don’t know and you can see why organisation is required!
So, for the benefit of other first-timer families and wives, here’s what I learnt.
This is a rich person’s sport
I knew this already, because I see what my husband spends. But stand next to the bike transition area for a few minutes and do the maths and your mind will be blown. £40m of bikes, and that’s a conservative estimate!
And it isn’t just the bikes. Coaching, memberships, entry fees, accommodation, clothing, travel… It’s an investment. Being able to afford to take part at this level, and then to actually qualify for an event like this, is a fantastic privilege. In fact I didn’t realise qualifying was even on the cards until he delivered blistering pace at Weymouth last year!
Know your conditions
Thankfully, the UK had a heatwave pretty much since June, which turned out to be a training blessing. Whilst most of us were over the heat by the start of July, it was great to prepare for the heat of Nice.
Hills with the gradients of the Alpes-Maritimes are harder to find in Hampshire, but thankfully Mr P was able to ride the course virtually in our sauna like garage on his turbo many times. So many of the pros arrived in Nice early enough to ride the course itself ahead of the event. Mr P had done the same for the UK qualifying event he entered, so I guess the pros were on to something.
Arrive early
And soak it all in.
It’s a massive event, with a big entry fee and lots laid on for competitors. People travel from all over the world and have worked incredibly hard to qualify, so you can imagine that the jamboree put on is quite spectacular.
Mr P went a few days early, ahead of us, got the lay of the land and could do everything in an unhurried and enjoyable fashion. This was particularly useful because by the time my son and I arrived, he was buzzing and had worked out where everything was, as well as making sure there was wine chilling in the fridge!
Don’t pack late – and learn how to pack a bike box
Quite likely a girl-vs-boy thing, but Mr P was definitely doing his packing later than I would advise.
The packing list for a three-sport event is pretty extensive. Add in the fact that the trip is also doubling up as a bit of a holiday and there’s a lot to think about.
Then there’s the bike box. These cyclists normally leave their bikes all in one piece and don’t fiddle with things they don’t understand, so taking the bike apart for the first time to head to Gatwick was pretty intense.
I stayed out of the way, advice wasn’t needed! And he found a bike shop in Nice when he arrived to check his rebuild!
Families are invested
Whilst there’s only one person competing, it is a team commitment. Families were there through the lows, the early starts, the late nights of training and the general disruption to family life that comes with deciding that swim-bike-run is going to become your personality.
So you can guarantee that families are going to want to be soaking up the fun at the victory lap event too. Ironman have worked this out. You will not find one of their showcase events somewhere that isn’t appealing as holiday location. And there’s races for the Ironkids too!
I said earlier it’s a rich person’s sport. Well, it’s also a sport where the support crew are just as happy to invest in holiday and the local economy too!
Sports tourism
It’s a thing. Clearly it applies to things like Premiership football or the Olympics, but for an event like this the economic value it must bring to a host city is hard to estimate (although the alcohol spend is likely lower than normal tourism).
6,500 competitors from 130 countries. They’ve spent a lot to get themselves to the World Championships, for the most part travelling with supporters. Landing in a foreign country and staying for a good length of time.
The Ironman course itself is stunning (especially the mountains that I didn’t have the pleasure of!), but the venue needs to be appealing enough to attract the supporters in their droves too. We did our bit for the French economy as well as supporting Mr P.
Fly out separately
For two reasons.
Firstly, it is an event that needs focus. Approaching it like a holiday isn’t going to let the competing person focus on what is important.
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, anything forgotten by the initial traveller can travel with the second part of the family cohort.
I took porridge and jogging bottoms as late additions to Mr P’s packing.
There is no escape from Ironman athletes
They’re literally everywhere. And Nice isn’t a small city.
If you don’t find them on your flight or trip over them with their bike boxes at the airport, you’ll find competitors in the patisserie at breakfast time, in every restaurant, mooching around town, on the beach…
Everywhere you look there are brand-bedecked people.
It became a bit of a hobby for us spotting competitors. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen so much athleisure wear in a city. In fact i’m not sure there were any non-Ironman visitors in Nice last weekend.
Designer bags
And before you see the athlete, you’ll see the £800 “designer bag”.
The joke is that the entry fee pays for this coveted bag and I’ve come to realise it’s something of a bag of honour. You can tell the old hands because they have World Championship bags from previous years.
Don’t knock the bags. They are excellent. Easily big enough to carry all the different transition bags and kit needed, and Mr P and I will be fighting over it for weekends away. Perhaps entry was a bargain!
And then there’s the merchandising
Good grief. Somehow I restrained myself and only bought a mug.
Mr P less so.
There were hundreds of choices of event T-shirts, all manner of other sports clothing, knick-knacks, 20 different types of bags and about 30 different hat designs.
This is a brand that means something to a lot of people and has an incredibly loyal following. I don’t know where it features in brand league tables, but it must be high compared to its footprint. Google says Ironman is worth > $700m which is pretty impressive for a mostly-amateur sporting event!
I wore one of Mr P’s Ironman hats on race day because it didn’t feel right to have nothing branded amongst a sea of stalwart fans.
Organisation
Talking of kit, my word, the level of planning involved in what to take where and when is something else.
The day before the race, the bike can be dropped off in the afternoon, along with the transition bags for the swim-to-bike and bike-to-run transition zones. Planning what goes into those bags takes time. You need to make sure nothing is forgotten and everything is in its place, because once dropped off, they are inaccessible.
Then, on the morning of the race, transition is open again until 7am to drop off drinks, so they don’t warm up overnight, and do final checks. Then there’s a morning clothes bag that gets dropped off somewhere else.
I was impressed by how organised Mr P was with all of this. There must be an important difference between “packing for the race” and “packing for a holiday”.
Read the rules!
I watched some supporters having to calm down their competing husbands in bike transition! They’d been given a yellow card by the umpire for rule infringements – they’d not realised they were required to do up their cycling helmet before collecting their bike.
Being ready to shout the right support to get those competitors refocussed was critical. Mr P would have had steam coming out of his ears if it was him.
I did also see plenty of people with injuries, broken bikes etc. One man ran miles and miles in bare feet after a bike crash because there was no way he wasn’t finishing. Incredible, but I’m very grateful that wasn’t Mr P, as the post race bubble might not have been quite as enjoyable!
Race day supporting
It’s a long day and it takes planning and sustenance.
You need to have a plan and keep an eye on time. Thankfully, at events like this, competitors have a tracker, which means you can course-correct and get to a good viewing spot before they cycle or run past you.
But there’s not much time between sightings and they might be too focussed to see or hear you. We put a lot of effort into our cheering and Mr P didn’t even see us!
90km in the mountains feels like a long time to go off and sightsee. But whilst the first 50km are done slowly with 1400m of climbing, the rest is a rapid descent at almost 70kph, which can catch you out. Added to which, road and footpath closures and limited crossing points to get from A to B to C around transition.
There are also people everywhere. I never normally chat to random strangers but we did here. Everyone was invested in everyone else’s race, even when they had never met. What a community!
Everything takes time, so jot down plans and expected times and keep an eye on the tracker. Friends at home will be watching the tracker like hawks too, there’s a lot to manage on the comms side of things, so make sure you have a charging block for your phone!
Random things we learnt along the way
- The pros are insanely fit. Running half marathons in just a few minutes over an hour having just cycled 90km in the mountains is mind-boggling.
- Use the bike box as ‘the’ hold luggage, one less bag to pay to check-in and there’s tonnes of space in there and the bike gets extra protection!
- Duck tape is the way to remove the competitor-number tattoos in one easy peel. A genuinely useful piece of information I found on instagram!
- With a bit of tessellation (and, in our case, a female mind), a bike box can fit into the rear of a car alongside a passenger. This was a significant logistical victory.
- A black-and-white trisuit looks good and the white top is nice and cool, but half the field wear them. If you want to stand out, go for pink, yellow, red spots, leopard print… Your support crew will thank you.
- Eating out is much cheaper with a pre-race athlete because they just want pasta and water. No alcohol required.
- Lifts in old French apartment buildings aren’t big enough for a bike box. Or sometimes even a bike. The fourth floor is a long way up when you’re carrying one. Book accommodation early to avoid this!
- People stay close to the start because there’s less waiting around on race morning (some athletes head off to do transition admin and then return to hotel for a short doze before start time) and less distance for the legs. I also imagine hotels win out because on departure day the bike box can stay with concierge. The lifts are big too.
- Follow one of the instagram Ironman accounts and then with all the chat the phone listens too, your feed will be swim-bike-run dominated (even when you unfollow them when you get home)!
- And finally, the support crew are absolutely part of the experience. We may not have swum 1.9km, cycled 90km through the mountains or run a half marathon, but we did check the packing, walk 10 miles, navigate Nice, track a moving target, carry things, charge phones, find food, manage logistics/communications and wear the hat.
Would we do it again?
Yes!
Before we went I was hoping Mr P might now find a hobby that doesn’t consume so many hours! But having discovered that the Ironman world and community is actually pretty extraordinary, I understand why he likes it. An incredible privilege and reward after the thousands of hours of training for the whole team to all enjoy a weekend in Nice.
